Purdue University-Main Campus

Purdue is a public land grant university with roughly 45,000 students, including 31,105 undergraduates. The majority of its students come from Indiana, 31% hail from other states and 16% are from other countries. Nearly a third of Purdue undergraduates enroll in its well-regarded school of engineering; undergraduates have more than 200 different majors to choose from overall. Because of the school's size, some first-year students report being overwhelmed in classes with 600 hundred other students. But as they progress through their majors, their class sizes diminish. Boilermaker football is a school-wide obsession at this Big 10 school, and Greek life is a dominant social force on campus. But with nearly 1,000 student organizations to choose from, everyone is likely to find something to match their interests. When students want to venture off campus, West Lafayette boasts its share of student-friendly bars and restaurants. Purdue grads tend to do well in the job market, reporting average early career salaries to PayScale of $58,000, which is about 14% higher than other schools with similar demographics, according to MONEY's calculations.